Ricciardo has 'outside chance' of winning title

Following an impressive victory at the Monaco Grand Prix at the weekend, Daniel Ricciardo reckons he has an "outside chance" of winning the 2018 Formula One world championship, but conceded that Lewis Hamilton remains the favourite with his current lead in the standings.

Ricciardo started the race from pole on Sunday, and despite suffering engine failings which drastically reduced the performance of his power unit, he held off the advances of Sebastian Vettel in second and Hamilton in third to claim the flag.

The Australian's win puts him third in the driver rankings, but he still remains significantly adrift of Hamilton's tally.

“I think Lewis still has a pretty good buffer on me, so we’re still on the outside of that,” he said.

“It’s not impossible but not really at the forefront of my mind yet. But, even if it was, I’m not going to change obviously the way that I’m driving or trying to attack.

“I’ll try to get a few more podiums but we’ve got to probably prove on at least one other circuit before the summer break that we can win again. And then maybe we’re a nice little outside chance.”

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Ricciardo was praised by Red Bull team boss, Christian Horner, who believes it is important that his driver now as the same amount of race wins this campaign as Vettel and Hamilton.

“I think it’s important he’s now on the same amount of victories as Lewis and Sebastian [Vettel] six races into the season,” Horner said.

“I think in Bahrain he would have been a genuine contender had he not had a reliability issue and we all know what happened in Baku.

“I think he’s up to third in the championship now, and I think we’ve got a very strong car.

“You’ve seen that all weekend, he’s been the quickest driver. Pole position, race victory and even making up for the disadvantage that we had.”